Yury Shentsov is currently Executive Director of Legal Forum in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Prior to this he was Chief Legal Expert at the Kyrgyz Committee for Human Rights (KCHR), a non-governmental organization in Kyrgyzstan dedicated to human rights protection. There, he advocated for victims of human rights abuses, particularly within judicial and law enforcement arenas. As a PILnet International Fellow, Yury conducted comparative research on the functioning of judicial systems within well-developed democracies with the aim of reforming the judicial system of the post-totalitarian regime in Kyrgyzstan. Upon his return to Kyrgyzstan, Yury continued to work on a project that monitors human rights abuses in law enforcement and judicial institutions, and produces regular reports on this issue that are distributed to human rights groups throughout the country.